Many hospitals and other healthcare facilities use computerized information systems and communication systems to help manage various aspects of the provision of services to patients. Such facilities often utilize a computerized health information system (HIS) that has admission, discharge, and transfer data collection and communication capabilities. The HIS typically tracks the status of patients during their stay at the facility. The HIS may also maintain an electronic medical records (EMR) database, which typically stores information collected about patients, such as patient demographics, vital signs and test results, during their stay at the facility.
Many healthcare facilities also have an electronic communication system, such as a “nurse call” system, which enables telephonic and/or electronic communication among caregivers or other staff members of the facility and/or between staff members and patients in the facility. Many nurse call systems have a centralized computer system (e.g. a “master station”) that monitors and controls the routing of electronic communications to and from patients and caregivers, and a number of remote computer devices (e.g. “patient stations”) located in the patient rooms. The patient stations communicate electronically with the master station.
For example, a patient may issue a call to a caregiver by pressing a button located on the patient's bed or on a nearby unit. The call may be answered by a caregiver at the master station. The master station may route the call or a notification thereof to one of the patient stations or to a specific caregiver's phone or other mobile communication device. Some examples of nurse call systems are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0212956, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,242,308; 7,092,376; 6,897,780; 6,362,725; 6,147,592; 5,838,223; 5,699,038; and 5,561,412.
Some hospital systems may have point of care interfaces located in patient rooms of a healthcare facility, which may be connected to a central computer system or server (such as a nurse call system) by a communication network. The point of care interface may take the form of a wall-mounted display that displays information about a patient or equipment in the room. In some systems, the point of care interface includes a user interface, which allows an authorized caregiver or other user to input data to the system, but not to control bed functions, via the point of care interface. For example, some point of care interfaces allow cleaning staff to activate a feature of the interface to indicate that a particular room has been cleaned. Some examples of point of care interfaces are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,154,397. Some examples of hospital systems that allow an authorized user to indicate whether a patient's room is clean or dirty at a user interface located on a hospital bed or elsewhere in the patient's room, are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,319,386 and 7,154,397.
In some healthcare facilities, caregivers are provided with badges that communicate wirelessly with a locating and tracking system or a locating and tracking feature of a nurse call system or other hospital computer system. Information received from the badges and from receivers located throughout the facility may be used to determine the caregiver's location in the facility. One example of a locating and tracking system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,794.
Some healthcare facilities use locating and tracking technology to detect whether a caregiver or other staff member is in a particular location, and then cause certain events to occur when the person is at that location. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,154,397 discloses a system in which a cleaning status of a room may be updated automatically if a staff member has been in the room for a specified period of time. As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,319,386 discloses enabling or disabling functions of a bed when a locating and tracking system detects that a particular caregiver has entered the room in which the bed is located.
Some healthcare facilities are equipped with patient beds that have a number of computerized features and/or features that are electronically controlled. For example, some patient beds are equipped with a weigh scale and an electronic bed control module, so that a caregiver can weigh the patient while the patient is on the bed, simply by touching a button on the bed control module. Some examples of patient beds that have a number of electronically-controlled features are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,957,461 and 6,279,183.
Sometimes, patient beds that have electronically-controlled functions are equipped with an internal bed communication network. For example, one or more bed controllers and bed function modules may be connected to the bed network, so that control signals from the bed controller(s) are communicated to the appropriate bed function modules via the bed network. Some examples of patient beds that have an internal bed network are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,480,951; 7,451,506; and 7,237,287.
Patient beds that have electronically-controlled functions often have one or more bed control modules, which provide a user interface that allows a patient or caregiver to control certain features of the bed. Typically, such bed control modules are mounted to a siderail, endboard, or other support structure of the patient bed. Some examples of bed control modules with user interfaces are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0180616.
Bed control modules may be connected to the bed through a wired or a wireless connection. One example of a wireless bed controller is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0058587.
Some bed control modules have a graphical user interface (GUI). On some bed control modules, the graphical user interface may include touch-sensitive input devices. Some examples of bed control modules that have a graphical touchscreen user interface are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2007/0180616 and 2008/0235872.
Some patient beds can be connected to a healthcare facility's nurse call system to send data generated at the bed to the nurse call system. For example, a patient bed may have sensors that detect when a patient has exited a bed, if the bed's brake is not set, or when a siderail is down. Upon detecting such a condition, the bed may send an alert signal to a master station of the facility's nurse call system. The master station may then send an electronic notification to a remote device, such as a patient station or a mobile unit used by a caregiver. Some examples of systems in which beds may communicate data to a hospital communication system are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,319,386; 6,362,725; and 5,699,038.
Patient beds may be connected to a facility's nurse call system via a wired or a wireless connection. Some examples of beds that have wireless data connectivity to hospital nurse call systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,319,386 and U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2008/0224861 and 2007/0210917.